Marine Ashley Hicks died when he fell into the gorge while 'escaping' from other soldiers during a training exercise

A Royal Marine died during a gruelling Special Forces selection exercise when he fell into a mountain gorge which should have been out of bounds.

But an inquest heard that the hazard’s name was written in Welsh on a military map – and no one realised the danger.

Commando Ashley Hicks fell into the 100ft gorge as he tried to reach a safe point while ‘escaping’ from other soldiers as part of the night-time training mission.

A coroner yesterday said the 25-year-old’s death was ‘clearly avoidable’ in a damning finding for military chiefs.

Despite recording a verdict of accidental death, she criticised the organisers of the training mission who had failed to notice the danger.

On the planning map used to brief troops before the exercise, the word ‘gorge’ was in its Welsh translation – ‘ceunant’ – so none of the commanders had realised it was a hazard.

Coroner Nicola Jones said: ‘Had the gorge been identified in the recce [reconnaissance] procedure it would have been out of bounds and he wouldn’t have been there.The failure to identify this gorge as an unduly hazardous location is clearly the most significant contributing factor to Ashley slipping and falling.’

Acknowledging that lessons had been learned by the military, she went on to say: ‘Crucially, there will be more attempts to gain local specialist knowledge of unacceptable hazards on training grounds in future.’

One SAS soldier, who was giving evidence from behind a screen to protect his identity, told the inquest that the Special Forces now study real-image internet maps before exercises.

Share this article

He said: ‘We are quite proud of our map-reading ability. On this occasion that ability wasn’t good enough.’

Marine Hicks, of Solihull, West Midlands, was killed while taking part in exercises to join an elite Special Forces unit believed to be the SAS.

He was part of a team climbing in the notoriously inhospitable area to test their ‘ability to adapt and survive’ in extreme conditions.

Marine Hicks volunteered to lead a team through the mountainous region while attempting to ‘evade capture’ from other soldiers.

An inquest heard how they had limited equipment for the night-time drill, including a map with ‘little detail’ of the area. Marine Hicks looked at the terrain on Google Maps where he saw the gorge – but identified it as a small riverbed rather than a 100ft drop.

Rugged: The military exercise was held in the mountainous region of Snowdonia, North Wales

Seconds after telling his colleagues ‘mind your footing’, he plummeted into Maentwrog Gorge in Snowdonia, North Wales. The drop was not shown on their scale map of the area.

When his comrades reached their colleague he was drifting in and out of consciousness and had a weak pulse. A few minutes later he stopped breathing.

His comrades carried out CPR on him until a rescue helicopter arrived and he was rushed to Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, North Wales, where he died.

One of the troops, who cannot be named, described the level of risk on the exercise, which took place in October 2012, as ‘acceptable’.

But another said the hazardous area would have been placed ‘out of bounds’ had they known about the steep-sided gorge.

Last summer three Territorial Army soldiers died in a gruelling SAS selection exercise on the hottest day of the year.

They collapsed with heat exhaustion while taking part in the notorious ‘Fan Dance’ march in the Brecon Beacons.

Philippa Tuckman, a military injuries lawyer, said: ‘Once again the MoD has found itself facing serious questions about whether it is properly protecting its soldiers.

‘We have seen time and time again alarming examples which point to unacceptable shortcomings in military practice and a consistent failure by the MoD to observe the duty of care it owes its soldiers.

‘We need to know whether this is another. Soldiers should not die on exercise.’